Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger. For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.(Zephaniah 2:1-5)

The eyes of the world were riveted upon two events in late August of 2005. On August 22 The Gaza eviction was accomplished, in which the Government of Israel, pressured by the United States forcibly removed the remaining Jewish presence in the Gaza strip and in four settlements of the West Bank. In some cases bodies were disinterred from graves, to be reburied in Israeli occupied land.

The world watched a self-imposed Jewish exile, over the tearful protests of Jewish home and business owners, to make room for a Palestinian state as dictated by the U.N.. Thriving businesses were left behind, only to completely trashed by the “Palestinian” occupants of the vacated towns and cities, as were the remaining Jewish cemeteries. The Gaza is now being used as a staging area for rocket attacks on the rest of Israel.

One week to the day later, August 29,2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in and on America’s Gulf coast, rendering tens of thousands of Americans homeless, and the disinterment of bodies out of cemeteries. Katrina wreaked havoc on the Presidency of George Bush that up to then was considered successful.

Although the U.N., The European Union, the United States Government, and Russia, all insist on the creation of a Palestinian state in the midst of the Holy land that God gave to the seed of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible doesn’t desire one.

Could the Gaza/West Bank, artificially imposed “Palestinian state”, be the “nation not desired” in Zephaniah?

Commentaries say no, for the most part, they claim that the “nation not desired” is Judah, but the Hebrew word for nation, in the Zephaniah passage is e-Gui, the word transliterated as Goy, that is the word ‘gentile”, “heathen”, or “Nation”.

The word of God has something to say about the future of Gaza, the nation currently run by a popularly elected terrorist group, Hamas, and the focal point of the world’s attempt to divide the Holy Land into a “two state solution’ to the middle east conflict.

Gaza has been designated by the U.N. as part of the homeland of the new Palestinian state. So also has the so-called “west Bank” of the Jordan River, biblically called Judea and Samaria. Since the Israeli Government has forced the Jews who lived and traded there to leave, Gaza has been turned into a complete terrorist enclave, a staging place for terror raids, a persecutor of Jews and Christians.

Gaza was recently in the news for the grisly street celebration held in the streets of her towns after an armed terror cell broke into a Jewish settler home in the West bank and slit the throats of the Fogel Family; a Father, an eleven year old boy a three-year old and an infant as they slept in their own beds. They then surprised the families mother, as she emerged from the bathroom, and murdered her in cold blood.

The response? Wild celebrations in the streets, passing out sweets and candies to neighbors, prayers and gunfire, a festive celebration! What sane nation would celebrate such atrocities?

Zechariah tells us that the celebration will one day be turned to agonizing fear for Gaza, after something happens to Syria, and to southern Lebanon, in the day when all eyes of men are turned to the LORD,

The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD. And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise. And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.(Zechariah 9:1-5)

Something happens to Syria, particularly Damascus, which terrifies the hopes of Gaza, turning her citizens into streams of refugees. It involves southern Lebanon as well, which today is the stronghold of the Hezbollah terror group, and is also being used as a staging ground to rain rockets upon Israel.

There is no future for a Palestinian state in Gaza or for the “West bank” in spite of the world’s desire. The world will soon see that the only desire that matters is that of the God of the Bible.